Where I remember old things.

COMEDY

I recently got hold of some more old TV magazines, and one of them contained a picture of a comedy show that I don’t remember watching at the time but I have heard a lot about it, so I pleased when I managed to track it down on YouTube as I thought it would be worthy of a review (also to my surprise it seems that it has been released on DVD but this’ll do for now).

Steve Coogan is someone who has been on TV since the late-80s as a comedian and impressionist, and by the mid-90s he had gone on to further success with his characters Paul Calf and Alan Partridge along with his BBC2 sketch show Coogan’s Run. So on New Year’s Day 1997 it was time to launch a new character who was sure to be a hit with the viewers… wasn’t he?

Tony Ferrino was the stylish Portuguese heartthrob singing sensation who thought a lot of himself, a star all over Europe who is now bringing his music to the UK with this show, accompanied by some special guests. This was a 45-minute music and variety show that had something of an old-school feel to it, with plenty of top-notch entertainment along the way.

Tony performed some of his songs, and most of the jokes came from his dubious grip on the English language. We also had a look back at his career, including a performance with his brothers in 1970 (who have since mysteriously disappeared), and when he won the Eurovision Song Contest by a landslide in 1980. The first guest was Kim Wilde (I presume that the celebrity guests knew Ferrino was a parody?).

Then it was time for a duet with Gary Wilmot. One of the highlights was “Bigamy At Christmas”, a song which was released as a single in the UK (yes really, it reached no. 42 in November 1996). And finally, having recently recovered from being strangled by an elastic song, Mick Huckhall joined Tony for a rousing performance of “Help Yourself”. But that wasn’t the end, as just two days later there was…

Introducing Tony Ferrino, Who And Why? A Quest (BBC2, 1997)

This was a 30-minute show that was more of a documentary including an interview with Ferrino, giving us a further insight into his remarkable career, along with a look behind-the-scenes of The Tony Ferrino Phenomenon, and a plug for his great new album. Coogan also appeared on TV shows around this time in character including BBC1’s Clive Anderson All Talk, and Comic Relief (where he sang with Bjork).

With a couple of high-profile specials Ferrino really was given a big push, but the odd thing is that he really didn’t catch on with viewers which was rather disappointing (there was also an album released but it wasn’t a hit), by the end of 1997 Coogan was back to playing Alan Partridge with much more success, and Ferrino has just about never been referenced since.

It’s well known that many people think Only Fools And Horses is one of the greatest British sitcoms, so its story doesn’t need much explaining here, I thought instead that I would look back at one of the other parts of the show. There wasn’t really much left to say in the original version… but viewers still wanted more, so how about doing something different.

There had already been a sequel written by John Sullivan called The Green Green Grass which featured Boycie and his family and ran for four series on BBC1. So how about a prequel! This would also be written by Sullivan, but this time it would focus on Del Boy in his younger years. The first episode was called Rock And Chips and it was set in Peckham in 1960.

This series would be an opportunity to answer some questions about the show, like the identify of Rodney’s father, and we would also be able to meet Del’s mum Joan who had been referenced in a lot of episodes for the first time. James Buckley (best known for The Inbetweeners) was cast as Del, Kellie Bright (later to star in EastEnders) was Joan, and Nicholas Lyndhurst would also feature, but who would he play considering Rodney hadn’t been born at this point?

There was much anticipation about this opening episode that was 90 minutes long and was more of a comedy-drama. As well as Del and his mum, we would also meet his dad Reg and his granddad (whose first name was revealed to be Ted). Even in those days Del (who was about 15 at the time) was mates with the likes of Boycie, Denzil and Trigger, while his relatives were often down local pub The Nag’s Head. Also featuring was Freddie “The Frog” Robdal, a safecracker who had just been released from prison.

Joan works at a cinema and has two jobs that are selling the lollies and making the tea. She is also trying to get the family a house in a new block of high-rise flats, and there’s the organising of the first Jolly Boys Outing to Margate. Del has recently left school and decided to try and knock out some pop records down the market, he made himself a few quid and he never looked back.

Joan has something of a fling with Freddie behind Reg’s back, and at the end of the first episode she gives birth to Rodney, and as Freddie was played by Nicholas Lyndhurst, there really was no doubt that he will grow up to look like his father. This episode did do well in the ratings, although it seemed to get rather average reviews from critics, but I do think that it was worthwhile.

The second episode was called “Five Gold Rings” and was also something of a Christmas special that was set at the end of 1960. Del has got hold of some dodgy rings and then tries to go out with every girl that he can so he pretend that he is giving them all some expensive diamond engagement rings. Grandma Violet also turns up to look after the infant Rodney, and Joan decides to dye her hair as if she wasn’t glamorous enough already.

The third episode was called “The Frog And The Pussycat” and set during 1961 and 1962. Del and his mates have now got themselves some fancy mopeds and are trying to impress the girls by taking them out to restaurants. Joan is still carrying on with Freddie who is in trouble again, while wondering if she should leave Reg and trying to keep her job at the cinema and look after the growing Rodney.

I don’t know if any more episodes were planned, as we didn’t get to the point in the story where Freddie killed himself after he accidentally sat on his detonator while trying to break open another safe, Reg walked out on the family, or Joan became ill and died in 1964, because just before the third episode was shown, John Sullivan, the man behind Only Fools And Horses, The Green Green Grass and Rock And Chips (along with other popular sitcoms including Citizen Smith and Just Good Friends) died, he was remembered by many as a great comedy writer.

All three episodes of Rock And Chips have been released on DVD (but they contain no extras). But the story still hasn’t ended there, in more recent years there have been some books released featuring Del Boy’s views on life (written by John Sullivan’s sons), and there is also an Only Fools And Horses musical planned (yes, really), I’m sure it’ll be cushty.

Around this time of year I like to do an update, and recently I did a list of the TV shows that I have yet to review on this blog, so here is a now rather long list of the shows that I have reviewed already. If you like the look of anything that you might find interesting or think will bring back memories, why not take a look at the piece, it’d be great to know what you think!

And along with all that, I am always on the lookout for things on YouTube, and I also plan to review more things including adverts, pop music, computer games and so on. So if anything on the list looks like something you might be interested in, why not spread the word because it’ll be great to get as many people as possible have a look at these pieces.

It’s time to take a look back at the year. It’s rather odd to think that 2018 has now happened and been consigned to history, as I still think that it’s about 25 years into the future. Four years on from starting this blog I am satisfied with what I have achieved. I feel that I have settled in and I have now done almost 700 pieces, including about 150 this year, here’s a look at some of my highlights of the year.

There was plenty of excitement in pop music as the story I told about Bananarama on here that I think will always be my favourite blog piece took some further twists this year. Firstly, I found a picture on Instagram of Siobhan in a pub that I know that surprised me (and she was alongside Brix Smith who definitely had an interesting music career in the 80s too). I still honestly can’t believe that I have walked the same path in life (I don’t mean our careers of course, I mean literally the same Bethnal Green streets) as someone who fascinated me (along with many other people) with their chart-topping single back in 1992.

Not long after, a picture appeared of Siobhan alongside Marcella from Shakespear’s Sister, by all accounts the first time they had seen one another for 25 years which was really something unexpected. That all of this has actually happened still makes me happy. It’s good to know that she’s still out there but I haven’t looked at Siobhan’s Instagram page for a while now because as you see I usually get more than I bargained for…

I also did a three-part series looking back at Bananarama’s hit singles, and I reviewed Keren and Sara’s appearance on BBC1’s Pointless Celebrities. Well five years on they appeared on the show again, and managed to maintain their unbeaten record as they reached the final and this time they won the money! They made great records in the 80s, they’ve been to Bethnal Green, they win TV game shows… what’s not to admire? And it seems that there’s a new tour and album on the way too, I don’t think Siobhan is involved in these though, but who knows maybe I’ll see her in the pub one day.

I was also surprised by just how many 80s pop stars had their 60th birthdays this year. Siobhan was one of them in September, and 13 days later another one was Danielle Dax. To celebrate this I decided to do another piece about her career because I thought that her work was fascinating and there should be more about her online, and this received a positive response. After completing it I found another article about her in Number One magazine in 1984, with a full-page colour picture and everything. I also found an interview from the same time where she said that one of her icons was Cruella de Vil and I honestly don’t know if she was being serious or not.

Oh, and remember when I found a picture of Danielle from a year or two ago at a gig in Dalston where I said she had bright blue hair which I thought was odd, but I teased people by using a picture of Stormer from great 80s cartoon Jem instead? Well recently when searching online I found a picture captioned “Danielle Dax, 2018”, which is the best post-1991 picture that I have seen of her. So if you really do want to know what she looks like nowadays…

I also looked back at the hits of 80s music stars Haysi Fantaysee and Hazel O’Connor. Not long after I received a tweet from the woman herself who also retweeted the link to the piece, making it become my most-viewed blog piece that I did this year, I was thrilled and it made all the work I put into it worthwhile.I didn’t tag her in the link so there’s the positive side of vanity searching I suppose, what an endorsement. Well it’s more than Kate Garner did.

I also came across two shows this year that I previously had no knowledge of that I really enjoyed. The first of these was ITV’s drama and music series Jangles which starred Hazel O’Connor (I also noticed recently that one episode features another early-80s singer who was Honey Bane of “Turn Me On Turn Me Off” fame).I must admit that I really became fond of the bizarre character Herald (“obliging those who wish to blow their minds…“) and he is now one of my unsung TV heroes.

The other one was BBC2’s The Wolvis Family, an early-90s sitcom about a rather bizarre family that was described by the Radio Times Guide To TV Comedy as “a forgotten gem”, and that’s a statement I can’t argue with, it definitely deserves a DVD release. And the character of Mr Wolvis became another one of my favourites. Other long-forgotten comedy shows I enjoyed reviewing this year included BBC2’s It’s A Mad World World World World, ITV’s Not With A Bang and Channel 5’s Hospital!

As for game shows, I decided to review Quizmania as Greg Scott and Chuck Thomas who were among the hosts are both following me on Twitter and I hoped that it might catch their attention. I was very flattered that they both approved of the piece, with Greg saying that he was pleased by how many people still remember the show so long after it ended and Chuck giving it a like.

I also reviewed the revivals of The Crystal Maze and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (who knows, maybe they’ll revive Blockbusters one day…), along with some American versions of classic game shows including Cross Wits and Play Your Cards Right. Also this year we had to say goodbye to some familiar faces, including game show hosts Jim Bowen and Dale Winton, and children’s TV stars Barry Chuckle and Geoffrey Hayes. Thanks for lots of great memories.

I also looked back at a few other interesting shows including ITV’s Wake Up London, BBC Choice’s Hotlinks, the news coverage of the death of Diana, I admitted that I did admired the ITV Weathergens, and it was also enjoyable reviewing lots of old adverts. CBBC and CITV shows that I reviewed included Radio Roo and Mega Mania. There are plenty more reviews of classic TV memories planned to come in 2019.

My blog has had over 41,000 views this year. All that it remains for me to say is thanks for reading wherever you may be, and special thanks to everyone who liked and commented, it is much appreciated to know that you enjoy what I do!

Here’s the story of how I came across this one. Not long after I started doing this blog, someone contacted me and asked if I was planning to review Educating Marmalade. I said that I wasn’t because I had never seen it, “before my time” and all that. They seemed to be rather surprised by this, as if they thought that I knew about every 80s and 90s TV show, which is something I should be flattered by I suppose.

The only clip that I was familiar with was where Charlotte Coleman (who would have been 50 this year) hosted a month of Children’s ITV in character (just about) in April 1983, and caused something of a stir in the comments section because she called someone a “schmuck”. After I discovered that both series had been released on DVD, I thought that I might as well give it a try.

The character of Marmalade Atkins was created by Andrew Davies, who first appeared in a series of books before coming to CITV in 1981 in a one-off 25-minute show called Marmalade Atkins In Space as part of the Theatre Box series. I hoped that the episode would feature some random red-haired women and now rather bad-looking special effects, and I wasn’t disappointed. I thought to myself, this has the potential to be rather interesting.

The first series of Educating Marmalade launched on CITV in 1982, and the theme music was provided by Bad Manners. Marmalade Atkins can be described as the worst girl in the world, and every edition began with a “bad girl warning”. She has been expelled from every school that she has ever been to. Every week social worker Mrs Allgood sends Marmalade to a new school, much to the despair of her long-suffering parents (Mr Atkins was played by Rory Bremner’s mate John Bird).

In the first episode Marmalade attended Cringe Hill (a parody of CBBC’s Grange Hill), and among the unruly pupils was future Lananeeneenoonoo member Kathy Burke. Also appearing in a few episodes as a schoolgirl before they were famous was Julia Sawalha. Most episodes ended with an exasperated teacher saying “Marmalade Atkins… you are expelled!”.

Marmalade also had some personality quirks, such as having a blonde streak in her hair about 15 years before that woman from Friends, reading comics including 2000AD and The Beano rather than get on with any work, she had a talking puppet dog in her bedroom, and she was also rather fond of addressing everyone as “cock” (is this why it received a 12 certificate despite being shown on CITV I wonder?). The show was popular enough for there to be a second series with a slightly different format…

Danger – Marmalade At Work (CITV, 1984)

For this series, Marmalade had now left school and had a new social worker who was Wendy Wooley after Mrs Allgood had finally had enough. Marmalade remained a total menace and every week she would have a different job such as a chef, spy, air stewardess and so on. There was also an episode where she joined the army which featured a guest appearance from Windsor Davies practically playing the same character as he did in sitcom It Ain’t Half Hot Mum.

One of my favourite episodes in this series was a parody of Fame, set at the New York School For Show-Offs And Big Heads, which featured some song and dance routines, and among the cast was Danny John-Jules (about five years before Red Dwarf), and future Blue Peter presenter Michael Sundin. For this series Marmalade also sang the closing theme (“jobs, I’ve had a few, and most of them, were pretty grotty-ah!“).

21 episodes were made altogether (and were a Thames production for ITV) and they have all been released on DVD by Network, the only extras included though are photo galleries. Along with the books, there were also some annuals released in the 80s that celebrated “television’s horrible heroine”. This series definitely had a lot of amusing and anarchic moments, it was good seeing lots of guest stars joining in, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Here’s a look back at yet another CBBC sitcom, and this one endured more than most. Bodger And Badger centred around a rather unusual double-act. There was the odd-job man Simon Bodger (Andy Cunningham, who also created the show and wrote the majority of the episodes) who was accompanied by a puppet badger (voiced by Cunningham thanks to some ventriloquism). They first appeared on CBBC’s Saturday Morning show On The Waterfront in 1988 before the got their own series in 1989.

And as always happens in these shows of course, there are some very odd situations. But for some reason, Badger was really rather fond of mashed potato, and it would often go everywhere. Bodger And Badger and for nine series, and the situation often changed. In the first series, Bodger worked in a restaurant, and from the second series, in a school, and he often had to hide the fact that he had a talking badger along with him, as he could have found that rather difficult to explain to people.

By the fifth series a new regular character was introduced, a small puppet mouse called Mousey who would often interact with Badger. By the ninth and final series, Bodger was running a B & B by the seaside, and most episodes seemed to climax with Bodger getting covered in mashed potato, but it still seemed to be funny every time. Other regular characters who got caught up in all of this throughout the years included Mr Troff, Mrs Trout and Mrs Bobbins.

Bodger And Badger eventually ran for 125 episodes that were 15 minutes long over almost a decade (the only sitcom to run for longer on CBBC was ChuckleVision), and it became one of the more popular CBBC comedy shows of its era. The show gained a lot of fans of all ages but there are still no plans for a DVD release, many people still hope that there will be one eventually. I’d definitely buy it.

Bodger And Badger was also frequently repeated, including being shown as part of the CBBC On Choice strand (which I always enjoyed watching), and it was also on repeated on BBC2, the CBBC Channel and CBeebies for many years after the final episode in 1999. Indeed, after the show left the screen the characters still had a big enough following for the show to be toured across the country (and one of these shows has been released on DVD), and Cunningham continued to perform at various events up until his death a couple of years ago.